What happened
Shares of Tesla (TSLA 1.85%) slipped on Wednesday, declining as much as 3.2%. As of 2 p.m. ET, the stock was down 2.1%.
The stock's decline was likely primarily in line with weakness in many growth stocks on Wednesday, ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting at 2:30 p.m. ET. But as the Fed meeting commenced, shares recovered some. As of 2:25 p.m. ET, the stock was down about 1.1%.
Image source: Tesla.
So what
Many growth stocks were initially sliding Wednesday as investors tried to guess the market's reaction to an expected announcement from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday about a plan for future interest rate hikes. The Nasdaq Composite was down 0.7% and the S&P 500 was down more than 0.1% as of 2 p.m. ET. Though both indexes flipped to positive once the Federal Reserve meeting commenced.
Also potentially weighing on Tesla stock Wednesday morning was a report that an off-duty taxi driver, driving a Tesla Model 3, plowed through a crowd of people and objects in Paris over the weekend. The driver reportedly told investigators that he was trying to steer the vehicle into objects in order to slow it down, indicating that there could have been a fault in the vehicle. While investors should wait for an official investigation of the crash to be completed before they make any conclusions, it's a development worth keeping an eye on.
In total, Tesla stock has slid 13% this month.
Now what
Meanwhile, there are a few weeks left in a very important quarter for Tesla. The company appears easily on pace to meet its full-year guidance for delivering 50% growth in vehicle deliveries this year. But investors will be hoping the company can do much better than that. In addition, Tesla is working on bringing new factories online in Germany and Texas. So investors should look for the company to make progress on this front, too, as the year wraps up.
